A. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receptacle apparatus, and method for making and using the same. The receptacle is a hamper for collection, transport, and removal of goods or other articles. In particular, the receptacle can be a laundry hamper or other holder or container for laundry. The receptacle can have a flaccid wall, possibly made of a textile. The wall is intended to be united with a retractably collapsible support or tension member framework structure, with a collapsible wall or a flexible wall being other approaches. The collapsible or foldable framework preferably has a knock down or foldable configuration of spring wire or a similar tension member, such as that which would permit lateral collapsibility.
B. Description of the Related Art
It can of course be said that the art of funneling was robust as of the present invention. But the application of a funnel to certain containers may nonetheless be a novel juxtaposition, and it would be premature to say that every invention involving funneling has been made.
For example, people have been locating laundry in and out of laundry hampers for ages, but the Applicant is not aware of any laundry hamper having previously being made with a funnel top to direct the laundry into the hamper. Perhaps this is due to the fact that laundry hampers have been considered bathroom furniture, and a funnel could be deemed an unsightly accoutrement for furniture.
With regard to such containers, again, certain kinds of them have been made rigid, while others have been made collapsible. Examples of rigid containers include wicker laundry hampers and wicker picnic baskets. Consider U.S. patents issued to Stephen A. Fausel (referenced below). On the other hand, a soft, collapsible cooler has been known, along with accordion-style portable water buckets (U.S. Pat. No. 1,454,388), trash containers (U.S. Pat. No. 3,014,516) large-sized containers (U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,059), bottles (U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,903). None of these have inwardly pointing funnel tops.
Instead, such containers have completely open tops, or hinged tops like laundry hampers, neither of which play an active role in directing items into the container-relegating the task to human positioning, conceivably with the aide of a separate funnel or shute. For example, baskets and containers such as those of U.S. Des. Pat. No. 213,131, U.S. Des. Pat. No. 290,538, U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,802, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,749 are presumably loaded by hand. Other containers have separate caps, tops, or doors, like U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,946,903 and 4,246,945, and Fausel's U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,196.
Such containers are often heavy and opaque or of a monotonous color, usually as a consequence of the solid materials with which they are constructed, though occasionally, such containers are painted or otherwise covered over. Consider U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,113 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,024, both of which are titled "Collapsible Hamper for Storage of Laundry and Other Items," and both of which list Stanley Ho as the inventor. Such containers would not allow sufficient visual access to determine the contents, and apparently a monotonous coloration may be suitable for a bathroom. See also U.S. Des. Pat. No. 362,931, titled "Laundry Hamper," listing Keith E. Brightbill et al. as inventors; U.S. Des. Pat. No. 344,823, titled "Laundry Hamper," listing Mitchell Wilgus et al. as inventors; U.S. Des. Pat. No. 342,365, titled "Clothes Hamper," listing Brian J. Conway et al. as inventors; U.S. Des. Pat. No. 293,383, titled "Hamper," listing Rick L. Thomson as the inventor; U.S. Des. Pat. No. 279,038, titled "Clothes Hamper," listing Rick L. Thomson as the inventor.
Accordingly, the art appears to have overlooked the sources of many problems (as well as the corresponding solution) that have limited this art.